Author: Elizabeth Rankin

Published: May 16, 2014

Jaimie Bleck

When USAID announced winners of a new, nationwide competition for innovative projects in the field of democracy, human rights and governance last week, scholars associated with the University of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies had won two of the coveted nine awards.

“We are interested in the role these indigenous informal institutions play in Mali’s post-conflict reconstruction — and in particular if they are able to help rebuild trust between ethnic groups and faith in democracy,” said Bleck.

Notre Dame political scientist Rev. Robert Dowd, C.S.C., and University of Virginia economist Molly Lipscomb received a $75,000 grant to study the link between public health, good governance and democratic politics in East Africa. They are building on a project already underway in western Uganda to examine whether citizens view local leaders who promote public-health initiatives as more popular and effective than other leaders.

“What is in the best interest of politicians is not always in the best interest of the public in the developing world,” said Dowd. “We want to see how good public service delivery can also be good politics at the local level.”

Bleck, the Ford Family Assistant Professor of Political Science, and LeMay-Boucher found immediate common interest in West Africa when he arrived at the institute last fall on a Kellogg Visiting Fellowship. Lipscomb and Dowd’s collaboration dates to her time as a Kellogg faculty fellow, before moving to the University of Virginia in 2012.

The projects benefited from initial Kellogg seed grants that the researchers leveraged for additional funding. In the case of Bleck and LeMay-Boucher, the Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development provided expert assistance as the pair developed their USAID proposal.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to develop our project in Mali with great flexibility,” said LeMay-Boucher of the new funding.